Baronial 12th Night - To Make Muscadines, Commonly called Kissing Comfits

To Make Muscadines, Commonly called Kissing Comfits, Delightfull daily exercise for Ladies and Gentlewomen, 1621 - Take halfe a pound of double refined Sugar beaten and cearsed [sieved], put into the beating thereof, two graines of Muske, 3 grains of ambergreese, & a dram of orris powder: beat all these together with gum Dragogon steeped in damaske-rose-water, in an aliblaster [marble] mortar to a perfect paste, then slicke a sheete of white paper, slicked with a slick-stone very smooth, and rowle your sugar pate upon it, then cut it like lozenges with a rowel, & so dry them upon a stone, and when they bee dry they will serve to garnish a marchpaine, or other dishes, tarts, custards, or whatsoever else, if you will have any red you must mingle it with Rosa Paris, if blew, with blew bottles growing in the corne.

Kissing Comfits

3 tablespoons rose water
1 teaspoon gum arabic powder
3 eyedropper drops essence of ambergris
2 eyedropper drops essence of musk
4 cups confectioners sugar, sifted
1 teaspoon powered orris root
2 drops yellow food color (optional)
2 drops blue food color (optional)

Pour rose water into a saucer, add gum arabic and stir until the gum is dissolved. Add the ambergris and musk, set aside until needed. Sift two cups of the sugar and the orris root into a bowl, Add the gum arabic mixture, a tablespoonful at a time and work into the sugar until the paste is smooth.

For white pastilles, sprinkle the third cup of sugar on a large plate and, with your fingers, work the paste into the sugar until it is smooth. For colored pastilles, divide the white paste into two equal parts, add a drop of food color to each part. Blend in each of the colors and set one aside covered (they dry out very quickly) while you work with the other.

Sprinkle half the remanning sugar on a clean plate and work in until smooth. Pat the paste into a square and cover it with a piece of wax paper. Roll it out gently to a sheet about 3/8 inch thick. Mark and cut off small squares, triangles and rectangles with a knife. Sprinkle a cookie sheet with the remanning sugar and place the pastilles on it about an inch apart.

When the pastilles have hardened, loosen them gently with a spatula (they break easily) and store them in an airtight container. You should be able to get about four dozen pastilles from this recipe. They will keep for six to eight weeks.-- "Dining with William Shakespeare" by Madge Lorwin

Baronial 12th Night - To make Manus Christi - A Closet for Ladies and Gentlevvomen, 1602

To make Manus Christi - A Closet for Ladies and Gentlevvomen, 1602

To make Manus Christi - Take halfe a pound of refined Suger, and some Rose water, and boyle them together, till it come to sugar again, then stirre it about while it be somewhat cold, then take your leaf gould, and mingle with it, then cast it according to art, That is in round gobbetts, and so keep them.

Manus Christi

2 cups sugar
2 tbsp. rosewater
1/4 cup water
Opt. Edible gold (I used stars for this event), food color (I used Wilton's pink), pearl luster dust

Place sugar, rosewater and water into a pan and allow the sugar to dissolve over low heat. Add a bit more water or rosewater if the sugar seems to dry and will not dissolve into a syrup. Heat till syrup reaches 230 degrees, remove pan from heat immediately, stir in gold or pearl luster dust, add food color if you wish and using a fork, whisk your hot sugar syrup until it starts to cool and becomes opaque in color. At this point, you can drop it by spoonfull's onto a lightly oiled cookie sheet or pour it into candy molds.

The resulting candy is very soft and will need a few days to dry out a bit before trying to serve. It almost reminds me of fudge in consistency.

Baronial 12th Night - How to cover all kinds of Seeds, or little pieces of Spices, or Orange or Limon Pill, with Sugar for Comfits. The queen-like closet (1670)

How to cover all kinds of Seeds, or little pieces of Spices, or Orange or Limon Pill, with Sugar for Comfits. The queen-like closet (1670)

Thomas Dawson lists comfets (comfits) as one of the "necessaries appertaining to a banquet".

How to cover all kinds of Seeds, or little pieces of Spices, or Orange or Limon Pill, with Sugar for Comfits. First of all you must have a deep bottomed Basin of Brass or Latin, with two ears of Iron to hang it with two Cords over some hot Coals. You must also have a broad Pan to put Ashes in, and hot Coals upon them. You must have a Brass Ladle to let run the Sugar upon the Seeds. You must have a Slice of Brass to scrape away the Sugar from the sides of the hanging Basin if need be. Having all these things in readiness, do as followeth; Take fine white Sugar beaten, and let your Seeds and Spice be dry, then dry them again in your hanging Basin: Take to every two pounds of Sugar one quarter of a pound of Spices or Seeds, or such like.

If it be Aniseeds, two pounds of Sugar to half a pound of Aniseeds, will be enough. Melt your Sugar in this manner, put in three Pounds of Sugar into the Basin, and one Pint of Water, stir it well till it be wet, then melt it very well and boil it very softly until it will stream from the Ladle like Turpentine, and not drop, then let it seeth no more, but keep it upon warm Embers, that it may run from the Ladle upon the seeds.

Move the Seeds in the hanging Basin so fast as you can or may, and with one hand, cast on half a Ladle full at a time of the hot Sugar, and rub the Seeds with your other hand a pretty while, for that will make them take the Sugar the better, and dry them well after every Coat. Do thus at every Coat, not only in moving the Basin, but also with stirring of the Comfits with the one hand, and drying the same: in every hour you may make three pounds of Comfits; as the Comfits do increase in bigness, so you may take more Sugar in your Ladle to cast on: But for plain Comfits, let your Sugar be of a light decoction last, and of a high decoction first, and not too hot.

For crisp and ragged Comfits make your decoction so high, as that it may run from the Ladle, and let it fall a foot high or more from the Ladle, and the hotter you cast on your sugar, the more ragged will your Comfits be; also the Comfits will not take so much of the sugar, as upon a light decoction, and they will keep their raggedness long; this high decoction must serve for eight or ten Coats, and put on at every time but one Ladle full. A quarter of a pound of Coriander seeds, and three pounds of sugar, will serve for very great Comfits. See that you keep your Sugar in the Basin always in good temper, that it burn not in Lumps, and if at any time it be too high boiled, put in a spoonful or two of water, and keep it warily with your Ladle, and let your fire be always very clear, when your Comfits be made, set them in Dishes upon Paper in the Sun or before the Fire, or in the Oven after Bread is drawn, for the space of one hour or two, and that will make them look very white.

Comfits

1 tbsp. seed of choice (anise, fennel, caraway)
1 cup sugar
1/3 cup water

To make smooth comfits you will want your sugar syrup heated to a lower heat, while jagged comfits you will need to heat your sugar to a higher heat. To make smooth comfits, I put the sugar and the water into a pot and then I heat it on low until the sugar has melted. At this point I heat the seeds in a large flat pan, similar to a wok or frying pan on low heat. If you can't comfortably reach into the pan and stir the seeds with your hand, then the pan is too hot.

Once the seeds are fragrant, and your syrup is heated take a teaspoon of it and pour it over the seeds in the pan. Using the back of a wooden spoon, (or your hand) stir the seeds until the sugar dries. If the seeds stick together, you have used too much syrup. If the sugar forms pellets in the bottom of the pan then you have used too much syrup.

The first few charges (coats) of the syrup the seed will look grayish, and then they will gradually begin to turn white. Continue to add syrup to your seeds until your comfits reach the size you want. They will lighten and whiten as they cool. If you wish to add color to your comfits add it to the syrup a few charges before your comfits reach the size you want.

Baronial 12th Night - Fig, Walnut and Candied Ginger Fruit Paste

Fig, Walnut and Candied Ginger (a rift of Rapeye--I claim cooks perogative)

Updated 6/15/2022 to include two steps I forgot!

I took several liberties with this recipe in order to accommodate allergies. First, the fruit was not cooked in wine, secondly I did not use pine nuts, apples were substituted for currants in order to get pectin and make the paste set up, and lastly, I added candied ginger in place of the other spices. It is in fact almost a completely different recipe then the original, but the method is the same.

Ingredients  (Serves 24)

4 granny smith apples, peeled, cored and sliced
1 tbsp. lemon juice
3 cups sugar
1 1/2-2 cups finely chopped dried figs
2-3 tbsp. candied ginger sliced into small slivers
1 cup toasted walnuts

OPT: Cinnamon Stick

Directions

1. Place cored apples and figs into a pot and add water. Bring to a boil and cook until the fruit is very tender and starting to fall apart. 

2.  Place your fruit into a food processor and process until it forms a very smooth puree. Do not strain your fruit. 

3. Return fruit puree to the pan and add lemon juice, optional cinnamon and sugar and heat on low until the sugar has melted. 

4. Once sugar has melted into the fruit puree, increase heat to medium, and stir constantly until mixture becomes extremely fragrant, darker and thickens enough that a spoon pulled through the fruit leaves a furrow behind. 

5.  Remove from heat and add candied ginger and toasted walnuts. Stir until thoroughly mixed. 

6. Pour your paste into a lightly oiled mold, or onto a lightly oiled parchment lined cookie sheet and leave in a warm oven overnight. Alternatively, you could pour your paste into a cupcake or muffin pan. 

7. Unmold before serving. 

 

Fig. Walnut and Candied Ginger Fruit Paste in the pan